Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-03-01
A Touch ION the Raw

EDS. RECORD UNION The people of Sac
ramento admit the fact that they are as
seriously menaced by hydraulic mining as
any community in the Sacramento valley.
And yet what have they done this winter
to ward off the danger threatened by the
proposed enactment to authorize the con-
struction of dams, under which pretense OF
security for the valley people the hydraulic
miners hope to resume their destructive
work? | repeat, what has Sacramento
done to avert the threatened danger all the
time this bill has been before the Legisla-
ture? Practically nothing. A few persons
have held a meeting or two at the eleventh
hour-after majority of the members had
committed themselves to the blll-and
appointed couple of lawyers and one or
two citizens as committee" to look after
the valley interests. These gentlemen, who
are but slightly acquainted with members,
OBJ in and out of the legislative halls andy
bean do nothing except post those alread
opposed to the bill in regard to legal points
involved. And now, after the bill has
passed TO engrossment in the Senate, cap
italist or two puts in appearance, looks tim
idly about, and hobs out again without
knowing what to do or whom to address on
the subject. What kind of way is this of
doing things? All the session through the
friends of the bill have been quietly but
earnestly working for its success. They
have traded off their influence on every
other measure, and-with the aid of the
Miners Association-have secured the help
of the San Francisco bosses, who have only
to pull the strings in order to make their
dummies dance to whatever tune they wish
What have our leading men been doing
all this time? Where have the Mayor and
the City Trustees been hiding all winter?
Why have not the members of the Board
of Trade visited the Capitol to look after
the great interests involved? In short,
how many votes have been secured in OPP
position to this debris-dam bill by the
business men and capitalists of this city,
Virtually, none. Three or tour live news
paper reporters, who have little time for
anything outside their labors, have, ]
venture to say, done more individually to
inform members on the subject and to
secure votes for the valley people than all
the rest of the community put together,
and | am assured that this is really fact.
There are two ways which to help or
injure bill. One is by putting money in
the hands of lobbyists, who command the
services of certain members. The other is
by getting acquainted with members, treat
ing them and their families with courtesy,
or entertaining them, etc, and then ex-
plain to them clearly the good points at
issue. You cannot come in at the eleventh
hour and say you're a county or a city Off
cial, and expect members who never saw,
nor heard of you, to stand awe-stricken and
ready to bow at your feet. / undertake to
say that-outside of the interest taken in
this debris matter by the attorneys regu-
larly retained by the county, and what has
been done by the representatives of the
local press-not particle of effective work
has been done by citizen of this COM
muDlty. Senators whose votes would nat
urally be given in the interest OF the para
mount industry Of this State, but who have
not been brought in contact with this
debris question, are allowed to be led in
the wrong direction by the false statements
and special pleadings Of the friends of n.y.
draulic mining.
Questions like this must be talked up
outside the Capitol building. The merits
of question cannot be brought out always
in a five-minute speech or argument. Out
side the small coterie who vote as the hired
bosses dictate, there are always good and
true men who may go wrong on an i'm
portant question for various reasons if not
properly informed as TO the facts. If this
Walrath hill should pass the Senate by
majority of one or two votes, it will be a
severe reflection upon the people of this
city.
And the alleged representatives of the
laboring classes will find it difficult to ex-
plain TO their anti-coolie laboring constitu-
ents how and aghy it was they voted in the
interests of calling that has lived, and can
only live again, through the aid of Chinese
labor. OBSERVER.